Stories about this couple went viral on the Internet. Now both the sheriff and the school superintendant say they’ve been inundated with angry reaction from across the country.

Just browse the blogoshere and you’ll see a tirade of reaction to a local home schooling case.

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“They either forgot or didn’t know they were supposed to. I don’t think they were purposely trying to hide or do something wrong,” Fonda-Fultonville School District Dr. Jim Hoffman said.

Hoffman says the Cressy’s have now filed the paperwork. But the district is responding to up to 100 e-mails and calls from across the country from people who are incensed that the couple was charged at all, including allegations they say are not true.

“In some cases attacking us for having the children removed, none of which happened,” Hoffman said.

The Sheriff’s Department also says it got dozens of calls and issued this clarification saying the Cressy’s were simply issued appearance tickets and that the children were not removed from the home.

Ouch. (Read the whole piece here.)

There is no way of telling how many of the online commentary and comments, or calls mentioned in this piece were from homeschoolers. But it appears that homeschooling didn’t shake that knee jerk, reactionary reputation that makes one shudder. This reputation has never served us well. I clearly remember the dressing down I received from a state legislator’s education liaison in the wake of the HR 6 affair. For sure this isn’t 1994, but, that doesn’t change the fact that homeschooling can easily smear itself as a know-nothing, reactionary community for an uninformed response. Let’s hope cooler heads prevail in the future.